Have Cheetah,Will View #66 – “Run Like Hell” (2014)

Wow,the cheetah and I are really stoked that you guys liked our take on our Creature Feature film,”Terror Birds”!! While we know its not everyone’s cup of tea,or scrambled eggs,we had a lot of fun watching and writing about it.

So that being said,we decided to stay under the blanket with our flashlight and popcorn to review a different type of indie horror film,2014’s “Run Like Hell”.
“Run Like Hell” opens with two couples on a road trip from what could be Arizona or California to Pennsylvania. The two sisters,Maggie and Samantha,along with husbands,Dan and Luke. Luke is a sort of macho ex-military guy while Dan is more meek and mild. The two guys don’t hit it off very well…Dan wants to sight see and Luke just wants to get where they need to go. The couples agree to stop and see a few things on the way and soon,everyone is happy. They even stop to check out a rock that is supposed to look like Elvis.

The couples walk down a broken trail for a while until they a plain rock that looks nothing like Elvia,Dan tries to joke his way out of the waste of time but by now everyone is over it.
As Luke crests the last hill,he sees their Jeep being stolen and suddenly they are stranded. Luke mentions he saw a little town past the Elvis rock and they hike to a farm where Harold and Nancy are only too ready to help them out……
When Sheriff Jed comes to reassure them he can recover their car “in 1 to 2 days” and leaves before even getting a description of it,you know things are not what they seem to be. Just why was Dan so eager to stop and look at a plain rock in the first place….and why is there another couple being held against their will??? The die is cast and who be the last one alive to “Run Like Hell”???

Okay,I have seen this story a hell of a lot,innocent people stumble into a mess of trouble…
you have “Southern Comfort”, “Breakdown”,”House of A 1000 Corpses”(that was for you,Dan Dolzall) and maybe the most infamous, “The Hills Have Eyes”. When the story is done right,it can be very effective. You don’t know who or what to trust and with each act of violence or a person gone missing,a good film maker can tighten the screws.

The screenplay was co-written by Clayton Prince (who plays “Luke”),Joseph Schnaudt and director James Thomas and it has enough originality to recommend it. What holds “Run Like Hell” back is a weak cast with only three strong performances in it. Dave Finn as Dan ,Jessica Cameron as Jennafer and Shonadale Seymour as Nancy really stood out. The rest of the cast wasn’t very good and that is too bad because this movie could have been so much better with a better cast.
Horror and gore fans will be happy with the blood flow,there is quite a bit of it and the practical effects are very well done as well….this was Thomas’s first feature film that he directed,he’ll only get better with each effort,he is a talent to keep a eye on.

So if you are on a desert road and you see a sign beckoning you to check out a Elvis looking rock,don’t stop….and Run Like Hell!!

The cheetah gave this a flat paw because of the weak cast while I gave it a thumbs up based on Finn,Cameron and Seymour’s work.

“Run Like Hell” runs a fast 80 minutes and while its unrated,it would be a hard “R” graphic violence and language. This Gravitas Ventures release has no special features.
You can buy this film off their website.